Just a Normal Day

I arrive at dawn and hustle in to my office. Big white blobs on Big Pond turn into Tundra Swans through my binoculars.

Photo by Dave Cooney

I work a while. Then I hear the boss’s voice over the P.A. system: There’s a mockingbird in the sumac next to the stop sign by the entrance. Coats on, grab binoculars… out we go.

Our mission is interrupted by a distant, yet loud chorus of geese. We watch the empty skies in anticipation as the honking gets louder. Finally – there… just over the trees – hundreds and hundreds of geese heading out to join the white blobs, I guess.

We return to scanning the bushes. We never see the mockingbird, but we do spot a pileated woodpecker, working a tree, then flying overhead.